Henry Gifford filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Green Building Council, accusing them of deceptive trade practices.

The U.S. Green Building Council is home of the world’s most popular green building rating system. There are LEED certified buildings across America and around the world. The organization hosts a massive conference, Greenbuild, each year with tens of thousands of attendees. However, the USGBC is not without its detractors, and a recent class-action lawsuit attests to that fact.

The class-action lawsuit against the USGBC was filed on Oct. 8, 2010, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by Henry Gifford, Gifford Fuel Saving, Inc. and others.

Henry Gifford is a longtime critic of the LEED Rating systems. In a September interview with NPR titled Critics say LEED program doesn’t fulfill promises, Gifford says, “It’s impossible to go out and buy a building with a guarantee for how much energy it won’t use. And the LEED system, by basing everything on energy predictions, continues that. This is one of the reasons why it’s so popular — because it’s painless.”

The class-action lawsuit filed by Gifford and others claims that the USGBC has engaged in deceptive trade practices, false advertising and anti-trust in promoting the LEED certification program.

To learn more about the lawsuit, including class members as well as a full list of allegations, view the official USGBC class-action complaint.